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SECOND SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE – 2014 – LAST FOUR DAYS

The first two weeks of our new subscription drive went quite well, the first better than the second.   Thank you to new subscribers and to our old reliables.  But more is needed. We'd like to end this drive strongly.  Please help keep Urgent Agenda running by subscribing or donating.

We're in the last week of our second subscription drive of 2014.  This is a critical year for Urgent Agenda – perhaps the most important midterm election year in America's recent history.  But maintaining our daily, day and night, coverage of this year is costly.  It is subscribers and donators who keep us going.

Like all political sites, we face increasing competition each week as more bloggers join the internet.  As a site in our sixth year, we face the reality that some subscribers will drop out, and some will pass.  We've had several sad moments in the last few months.  Our retention rate is still spectacularly high, but there will still be a certain amount of slippage.

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JULY 10,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

STRANGE LOYALTIES – Germany will play Argentina in the World Cup final on Sunday.  I dun no, I'm confused.  Aren't those countries related?  I mean, at the end of World War II there was something called the Rat Line in newly defeated Nazi Germany.  It was a system whereby war criminals got safe passage out of Europe.  And a goodly number of them departed for friendly Argentina, where they conveniently disappeared.  So, if you watch on Sunday, and you see in the stands some elderly gents rooting for Argentina, but who have nostalgic looks on their faces, call the Justice Department.

FRIGHTENING – Reports from different sources say the focus on children being sent over our southern border is diverting attention from something more chilling – infiltrators from the Middle East slipping into this country over the same border.  A priest and nun who work in the border area, interviewed earlier tonight on Fox, agreed that this is a worrisome situation.  Terrorism experts for years have warned about jihadists slipping into the U.S., and possibly bringing with them parts for weapons of mass destruction.  And yet, almost no attention is being paid by the mainstream media.

HER TOO? – Chelsea has caught the high-maintenance bug.  From Fox:  "Like her parents, Chelsea Clinton has become a sought-after speaker who can generate large fees for her appearances.  The 34-year-old Clinton, the daughter of the former president and ex-secretary of state, can command as much as $75,000 per speech. Her speaking fees were first reported by The New York Times.  A spokesman for the Clinton Foundation, Kamyl Bazbaz says Clinton's speeches are made on its behalf and it receives 100 percent of the fees. He says a majority of the speeches are unpaid."  What they don't tell you is that the Clinton Foundation is a kind of government in exile.  Many people associated with it would move right into a new Clinton administration.  And...get the name of that foundation spokesman.  Kamyl Bazbaz?  I want to know more about that chap.  I don't think he's an Iowa farmer.

THIS IS NOT IN AL GORE'S SCRIPT – From WaPo:  "Call it the ghost of the polar vortex, the polar vortex sequel, or the polar vortex’s revenge. Meteorological purists may tell you it’s not a polar vortex at all. However you choose to refer to the looming weather pattern, unseasonably chilly air is headed for parts of the northern and northeastern U.S at the height of summer early next week.  Bearing a haunting resemblance to January’s brutally cold weather pattern, a deep pool of cool air from the Gulf of Alaska will plunge into the Great Lakes early next week and then ooze towards the East Coast...But make no mistake, in parts of the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest getting dealt the chilliest air, hoodies and jeans will be required. Highs in this region could well get stuck in the 50s and 60s – especially where there is considerable cloud cover."  Al Gore has just been taken to the hospital in shock, and is being treated with organic spinach.

July 10, 2014       Permalink

OUTRAGEOUS – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  One aspect of the Obama administration's border "policy" is to restrict the movements of members of Congress in border areas, even though they are there on official business.  It is another example of Obama's thrust toward an authoritarian state.  Senator McCain is leading the fight against this latest outrage.  From Fox: 

Sen. John McCain ripped into the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection for an apparent policy restricting lawmakers from taking photos and interacting with people at facilities housing illegal immigrant minors, demanding the rules be reversed "immediately."

"I want it done today. You understand?" the visibly angry senator told CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, saying he "overstepped."

The hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee was called to receive updates on the border crisis from key agency heads involved in handling the influx of illegal immigrant minors from Central America. The tone of the hearing took a turn when McCain began questioning Kerlikowske on a memo described as "protocol for visitations and tours."

McCain said it restricted the use of cell phones, and restricted contact between visiting lawmakers and the children, as well as the staff.

"Am I allowed to bring a cell phone with me?" McCain asked.

"Not to take photographs," Kerlikowske responded.

Asked why not, the commissioner said the children "have a right to privacy."

McCain said he might want to take a photo of something else, and the commissioner said they could make "arrangements" for that.

Unsatisfied by the response, McCain cited other instructions restricting "physical or verbal contact" with children and with staff. Again, the commissioner said they could make "special arrangements" for visiting lawmakers.

COMMENT:  What's interesting is how little many "journalists" have had to say about this.  It's a clear attempt at censorship, in this case censorship of members of Congress. 

Increasingly, one gets the feeling that Obama, and the radicals he's hired, welcome this border crisis, for it brings more potential Democrats into the country.  I doubt if Obama will do much to stop it. 

July 10, 2014        Permalink

WHY, THOSE IGNORANT, UN-TRENDY AMERICANS – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  As we write this, there are attempts all over the world to ban dissent from global-warming "science" from news outlets.  The Los Angeles Times has already banned climate-change denial from its pages.  The BBC is falling in line.  After all, isn't it settled science?

Well, there's one group that thinks it isn't.  The American people.  From Rasmussen Reports:   

Voters strongly believe the debate about global warming is not over yet and reject the decision by some news organizations to ban comments from those who deny that global warming is a problem.

Only 20% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the scientific debate about global warming is over, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Sixty-three percent (63%) disagree and say the debate about global warming is not over. Seventeen percent (17%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Forty-eight percent (48%) of voters think there is still significant disagreement within the scientific community over global warming, while 35% believe scientists generally agree on the subject.

The BBC has announced a new policy banning comments from those who deny global warming, a policy already practiced by the Los Angeles Times and several other media organizations. But 60% of voters oppose the decision by some news organizations to ban global warming skeptics. Only 19% favor such a ban, while slightly more (21%) are undecided.

But then 42% believe the media already makes global warming appear to be worse than it really is. Twenty percent (20%) say the media makes global warming appear better than it really is, while 22% say they present an accurate picture. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure.

Still, this is an improvement from February 2009 when 54% thought the media makes global warming appear worse than it is. Unchanged, however, are the 21% who say the media presents an accurate picture.

COMMENT:  The disgraceful attempts by some in journalism to ban dissenters confirms what many of us were already thinking – that environmentalism has become more religion than science, that dissent is considered heresy, not an opinion to be considered.

There is no such thing as settled science.  Science by its nature is unsettled, and filled with ferment.  Example:  How many times in your lifetime have you seen the treatment for heart disease changed, with old ideas discarded?  But those old ideas had been developed by scientists. 

What is needed, as I've said here before, is a Challenger-type commission composed of eminent men and women, with no stake in the outcome, who will examine what is actually known about climate change, what isn't known, and what must be known for society to make intelligent choices.  That commission will never happen because there are too many interests who would want it suppressed, and too much research-grant money involved.  It's a very sad state of affairs.

July 10, 2014       Permalink

OH, MORE INCONVENIENCE – AT 9:19 A.M. ET:  Iraq?  Iraq?  Didn't Barack (come to save us) brilliantly execute our withdrawal from Iraq, invaded by BUSH (!!) and CHENEY (!!!!!!)?  Why, these newspapers must be run by the Republican National Committee.  Everyone knows that London's Daily Mail is run out of Milwaukee: 

Militants in Iraq have seized nuclear materials used for scientific research at a university, the United Nations has been warned.

Iraq warned of the seizure in a letter on Wednesday to the U.N. in which it appealed for help to 'stave off the threat of their use by terrorists in Iraq or abroad.'

In the letter, which has been obtained by Reuters, Iraq's U.N. ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said nearly 40kg of uranium compounds were kept at Mosul University.

The city of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, was captured last month in a seizure led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

The U.N. atomic agency has today said it believed the nuclear material was 'low grade' and did not pose a significant security risk.

'Terrorist groups have seized control of nuclear material at the sites that came out of the control of the state,' Alhakim told U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, adding that such materials 'can be used in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.'

'These nuclear materials, despite the limited amounts mentioned, can enable terrorist groups, with the availability of the required expertise, to use it separate or in combination with other materials in its terrorist acts,' said Alhakim.

He warned that they could also be smuggled out of Iraq.

COMMENT:  The UN is playing down the danger, and, as one would expect, so is the Obama administration.  But nuclear materials can conceivably be used to make "dirty" bombs, which spread radiation.  I don't know if these materials qualify.  But the theft of any nuclear material indicates that Islamist extremists want that material.  Why would they want it?  I doubt if they want it to make their watch dials glow in the dark. 

Nothing to see here, folks, nothing to see.

July 10, 2014       Permalink

ISN'T THE WAR ON TERROR OVER? – AT 9:05 A.M. ET:  Why, hasn't Barack waved the magic wand and brought peace on Earth?  Uh, maybe not.  There's been a bit of bother in France.  From London's Telegraph: 

France foiled an Islamist terrorist plot to target the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and even a nuclear power plant, it emerged on Wednesday, as the country unveiled new, tougher anti-terror rules.

French police stumbled on the plans after decrypting coded messages between a 29-year-old Algerian butcher living in the Vaucluse, southern France, known only as Ali M, and one of the highest-ranking members in al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM.

According to Le Parisien newspaper, in April last year, the married father of two who went by the pseudonym Abu Jaji was asked by his AQIM contact, whose web alias was Redouane18, to make “suggestions concerning how to conduct jihad in the place you are currently”.

Ali M suggested targeting nuclear power plants, “planes at the moment of take-off”, and a string of French landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum in Paris.

Failing that, he suggested launching terror attacks on “the modest and poor French population” in markets or nightclubs, as well as police patrols.

COMMENT:  Not important, not important.  This is all Islamophobia.  There are not threats.  These people were writing television shows.  Yeah, that's what it is.  Just TV shows. 

Well, actually, the French take these things seriously.  I recall visiting France in the 1980s and marveling at how much security existed at the airports, as opposed to ours. 

We now have in Washington an administration that tried to brand the terrorist attack at Fort Hood as "workplace violence," that tried to re-label terrorism as "manmade disasters."  These ideas didn't come out of nowhere.  They came from the minds of the political left, which dominates the life of Barack Obama. 

But one of these days we're going to be surprised again, and maybe we'll wake up.

July 10,  2014     Permalink

JULY 9,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET: 

THE OPEN, TRANSPARENT ADMINISTRATION – Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar dared criticize President Obama's handling of the border crisis.  The Summer Palace objected.  From American Thinker:  "U.S Representative Henry Roberto Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas, told Brian Kilmeade on Fox and Friends this morning that he's already gotten a phone call from the White House, he wouldn't say from whom, warning him to stop criticizing Obama on his handling of the border.  Kilmeade mentioned to Cuellar that the WH doesn't take kindly to Democrats criticizing the president and cited Corey Booker catching flak and then backtracking.  Kilmeade pressed Cuellar about who called but the Congressman declined to say."  This White House remembers.  Cuellar may soon be toast.

THE KREMLIN HAS DECIDED... – From Education Action Group:  "NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee State Board of Education has passed sweeping new restrictions on student bake sales in order to be compliant with federal rules on school snacks, and a lot of people are unhappy about it.  In order to comply with the Michelle Obama-inspired regulations, Tennessee schools will only be allowed to have bake sales 30 days per school year.  State Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman said it was 'quite remarkable' that food fundraisers would be regulated by how many days they can be held, noting that this will prevent high school sports teams from holding weekly food fundraisers, according to The Tennessean.  Others were more direct in their criticism.  'It’s unbelievable to me the amount of guidelines that are there,' state Board of Education Chairman Fielding Rolston said, according to the newspaper.  'If somebody wants to object to federal intrusion in what’s going on in schools, I think this would be an ideal place to target their objections,' Rolston said."  Let the insurrection begin.

I'M SHOCKED, SHOCKED – From The College Fix:  "Young America’s Foundation has surveyed the required reading programs for incoming college freshmen nationwide and found that, over the past three years, none of the colleges have assigned a conservative-leaning book.  None of them.  Young America’s Foundation surveyed the top 50 schools as noted by Forbes, and 'found that many of the "required" books only offered left-wing perspectives on topics such as race, feminism, socialism, inequality, and wealth redistribution.'"  Why, I never would have thought it.

NOT EXACTLY "GONE WITH THE WIND" – From Hollywood Reporter:  "Robert Redford has signed on to play Dan Rather in Truth, a film based on the 2005 memoir Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power.  The book, written by Rather's producer Mary Mapes, centers on the firestorm that erupted in September of 2004 after Rather reported that George W. Bush had received special treatment while serving in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, a report that was based on documents that turned out to be forgeries."  Redford could have been something had he stayed an actor, avoided politics, and played cowboys. 

July 9, 2014       Permalink

FRANCE ACTS AGAINST WOULD-BE JIHADISTS – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  Sometimes I get the feeling that some European nations, especially France, are more serious about security than we are.  From AP: 

France plans to ban citizens suspected of links to radical Islamic groups from leaving the country in a new bill aimed at strengthening anti-terrorist legislation.

The draft bill unveiled Wednesday would allow authorities to stop French nationals from traveling if they are suspected of having links to a jihadist network. It would also allow investigators to question and charge people with individual terrorist plans, often described as "lone wolves."

The government is concerned to prevent attacks by individuals returning from Syria. Around 600 French nationals are in Syria to fight with radical Islamic groups or are planning to go there, according to the Interior Ministry.

The plan is to be presented to Parliament in the coming weeks with an aim for a vote by the end of the year.

COMMENT:  Sounds reasonable to me.  We should do that here, although we would have to introduce safeguards to be sure innocent people aren't held back from traveling.  I think that's easy to do, and common sense should prevail.  People aren't traveling to Syria or Somalia these days because of the tourist attractions. 

July 9, 2014       Permalink

NOW THEY TELL US – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:  Wait a second, just wait a second.  Weren't we told that there were no WMD in Iraq?  I think that's what I heard.  Maybe I heard wrong.  Or maybe the party line has changed.  Whatever.  We now have this from Iraq.  From AP: 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iraq said the Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad, where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents.

Iraq’s UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a letter circulated Tuesday that “armed terrorist groups” entered the Muthanna site on June 11, detained officers and soldiers from the protection force guarding the facilities and seized their weapons. The following morning the project manager spotted the looting of some equipment through the camera surveillance system before the “terrorists” disabled it, he said.

The Islamic State group, which controls parts of Syria, sent its fighters into neighboring Iraq last month and quickly captured a vast stretch of territory straddling the border between the two countries. Last week, its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared the establishment of an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the land the extremists control.

Alhakim said as a result of the takeover of Muthanna, Iraq is unable “to fulfil its obligations to destroy chemical weapons” because of the deteriorating security situation. He said it would resume its obligations “as soon as the security situation has improved and control of the facility has been regained.”

Alhakim singled out the capture of bunkers 13 and 41 in the sprawling complex 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad in the notorious “Sunni Triangle.”

COMMENT:  How many years has it been since the Iraq war ended?  And that facility is still there?  I guess the press and the professors were too busy chanting "Bush lied, thousands died," to notice. 

We also note that Syria seems to have an inordinate supply of WMD.  We were told by good sources before our invasion of Iraq that long convoys had been spotted traveling from Iraq to Syria, and that they might have contained Iraqi WMD.  But the reports were ignored by the mainstream media. 

Chickens do indeed come home to roost.

July 9, 2014       Permalink

SON OF KATRINA – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:   Remember when President Bush was roundly criticized for not spending enough time on the ground, in New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina?   Well, in the immortal words of the philosopher Yogi Berra, it's déjà vu all over again.  Now the recipient of the criticism is Barack Obama, who, for some bizarre reason, refuses to visit the Texas border, which has now been breached by tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, many of them children.  Even Dems are dismayed.  From The Hill: 

President Obama should go see the humanitarian crisis developing on the southern border, the House Democrat leading the party’s effort to target Republican-held seats in the upcoming midterm elections said in an interview published Wednesday.

Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program, told USA Today that if she were advising Obama, “I’d advise him to go to the border.”

“I have to tell you, I'm much more of a hands-on person,” Edwards said. “So, for me, visiting the border would make sense in terms of my ability to make decisions. People do things differently.”

The president will arrive in Texas on Wednesday for a two-day fundraising trip, but White House officials say he does not plan to visit the border while there. Instead, he’ll attend a meeting with local officials, faith leaders and Texas Gov. Rick Perry in Dallas, where they’ll discuss humanitarian efforts to assist the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors streaming into the U.S.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest has said the president doesn’t need to visit because he’s aware of the scope of the crisis, and the administration is not concerned about the optics involved.

“The president is well aware of exactly what’s happening on the border,” Earnest said Tuesday. “And what we are focused on right now are not political statements that would be made with an appearance, but rather with specific concrete action, steps that can be taken to mitigate this problem.”

COMMENT:  First, I think it's almost hilarious that Donna Edwards, a real certified lefty, is in charge of anything in the Democratic Party, but it tells you where the party is.

Second, contrast the treatment of George Bush, whose rescue effort in Katrina was remarkably successful, with the treatment of Barack Obama, who has failed miserably, continues to fail, and seems to enjoy failure.  Obama is still given a pass by much of the press. 

July 9, 2014       Permalink

OBAMACARE MESS CONTINUES – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  It's been out of the headlines, but the reality of Obamacare marches on.  The program is a mess, and now we find that the federal government can't even guarantee the number of participants.  From Investor's Business Daily: 

Buried in a largely overlooked government audit of the Obama-Care exchanges is a finding that casts still more doubt on the reliability of the 8 million enrollment number commonly cited by the administration and the press.

In a section titled "Other Issues," an inspector general report released last week found that the HealthCare.gov marketplace couldn't show it had been reconciling its monthly enrollment numbers with insurance companies.

That's despite the fact that the law specifically calls for this reconciliation, and the fact that, as the IG report notes, "the federal marketplace obtained the services of a contractor to reconcile enrollment information."

Obama administration officials "stated that the system to support reconciliations had yet to be developed."

But as the IG makes clear, without this monthly reconciliation, the government "cannot effectively monitor the current enrollment status of applicants, such as ... termination of plans."

In other words, there could be far fewer enrollees than advertised if these numbers were reconciled as required by law. The administration told the IG that it had "an interim process" in place until its automated reporting system was up and running.

COMMENT:  Ah, the old "interim process" gambit.  And once again another Obamacare system isn't yet "up and running."  We are talking about medical care.  We are talking about people's lives.  And yet, look at the incompetence.  But this is one area where Americans are watching because their own families are involved. 

July 9,  2014     Permalink